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Jimmy Lai arrives at court docket for the decision
A Hong Kong court docket has discovered media mogul Jimmy Lai not responsible of intimidating a photojournalist from a rival newspaper three years in the past.
Mr Lai had denied the cost of “legal intimidation” over a 2017 incident at a Tiananmen bloodbath vigil.
Final month police detained the democracy activist in a separate case beneath a controversial new safety regulation.
He’s additionally dealing with a number of different costs over final 12 months’s anti-government protests.
The 71-year-old’s arrest in August sparked world condemnation of the escalating crackdown on dissent in Hong Kong.
He was led in handcuffs by means of his newsroom as greater than 200 cops raided the constructing in extraordinary scenes streamed stay by his Apple Day by day newspaper.
Whereas the arrest shocked many in Hong Kong, it was welcomed by Chinese language state media the place he’s denounced as a traitor.
The International Instances stated Apple Day by day had been “instigating hatred, spreading rumours and smearing Hong Kong authorities and the mainland for years”.
Who’s Jimmy Lai?
The millionaire magnate arrived in Hong Kong as a stowaway on a fishing boat.
He swiftly labored his method up from sweatshops to make his fortune within the clothes business earlier than founding Apple Day by day in 1995.
A paper that began off as a neighborhood tabloid grew into an ordinary bearer for the town’s pro-democracy motion, unafraid to problem leaders in Hong Kong and mainland China.
Mr Lai is among the solely tycoons within the territory who’s brazenly essential of Beijing and he was a distinguished supporter of the months-long reform protests that swept Hong Kong final 12 months.
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In June, when the nationwide safety regulation was imposed on the town by Beijing, Mr Lai advised the BBC it “spells the demise knell for Hong Kong”.
Lower than two months later he turned the highest-profile determine to be detained beneath the laws.
Talking after his launch on bail in August, Mr Lai stated he believed his arrest was “just the start”.
There might be “a protracted battle” forward for Hong Kong’s freedoms, he stated.
What is that this newest case about?
The not-guilty verdict on Thursday is said to a 2017 conflict with a reporter from Oriental Day by day Information, a newspaper considered as pro-Beijing that could be a fierce competitor to Apple Day by day.
The fracas occurred throughout an annual candlelight vigil to mark the 1989 Tiananmen Sq. crackdown in Beijing.
At trial the reporter testified that he had felt threatened when Mr Lai stated he would “mess with” him after he photographed and filmed the businessman on the occasion, reported the South China Morning Publish.
It added that in a video interview with police, performed in court docket, Mr Lai stated the reporter had been pursuing and photographing him for years earlier than the 2017 encounter and he had felt provoked by the digital camera.
Police had spoken to Mr Lai in regards to the incident in 2018 however the investigation didn’t proceed.
Then in February he was arrested and charged with legal intimidation.
On the identical day he was additionally charged with unlawful meeting associated to a banned anti-government protest final 12 months.
What else is the tycoon accused of?
Mr Lai has been arrested a number of occasions since February.
In April he was amongst 15 pro-democracy activists and former lawmakers arrested over protests final 12 months.
Then in August Mr Lai was charged with collaborating in June’s Tiananmen vigil, together with a minimum of 23 others. The annual gathering was banned in Hong Kong for the primary time, with authorities citing coronavirus fears.
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Jimmy Lai leaves the police station after being launched on bail final month
Probably the most dramatic arrest got here just a few days afterward 10 August within the largest police operation for the reason that safety regulation was handed.
Mr Lai and 9 different activists, together with Agnes Chow, had been detained over allegations together with “collusion with international forces”.
If charged and convicted beneath the safety regulation they might resist life in jail.
